Not sure what category it'd go under, but the Chambers Reference Online is one of the most damned useful things I use when I'm writing a fanfic/RP/whatever. It's got a dictionary and a thesaurus, and both are pretty concise.

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Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:09 am

Galar

Gym Leader

Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:04 amPosts: 1320Location: Sky Tower

The original title is "The Philosopher's Stone". "The Sorcerer's Stone" is how they named it in the USA.

That's a very nice website, gq. Speaking of Thesaurus, there is also Thesaurus.Com: I refer to it a lot, it's very useful.

EDIT: Thought I'd reply to the post above me, seeing as that what a forum is for...I don't like that website. A lot of thought should go into selecting a name for a character, whether it be Jane because of the character's plainness and ordinarity (yay for making up words) or Scarlet, because the main character of the fiction is Red and is their good friend (coughcheckoutthesigcough). And if you're pushed for a fantasy name, use an anagram of something that describes them. My charry in the Team Midnight roleplay was called Adam Bidison which was an anagram for Mad Obsidian. The dude was mad, dark, and controlled by me, hence the choice in name. It's not all that difficult to come up with a suitable name.
Anyway, on to what my post was really about...

OKay, this is a suggestion box, so I'm going to suggest something:

I think we should have a COMPETITION here in the Fanfic section.

Crimson and I discussed this last year, but nothing ever came of it because I had exams and the idea just sort of...vanished.

So, I was thinking that we could decide how a competition would be run and what would be in it in here (or another topic? Up to you Galar).

My initial thoughts are having three rounds or something.

Round One: Action scene.
Round Two: Horror Scene
Round Three: Poetry

Something like that, and then have a panel of judges (or have all those that are participating to judge) on which they think is best / second / third. Of course, the amount of rounds and themes of said rounds are not set in stone, people are more than welcome to suggest what we could have instead, I just chose those three because they're the sort of generic topics for this kind of thing.

We'd also have to have a word limit / requirement.

So, feedback? Good idea / bad idea? Who'd be a judge?

(And I hope this was the right place to post this. )

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"Play with fire and expect to be burned."

Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:34 am

Crimson

Pokemon Ranger

Joined: Sun May 07, 2006 2:33 pmPosts: 716Location: USA EST

For names, I have a baby book that I go through or I just tell someone to say names for a gender. If last names are absolutely necessary, I grab the nearest phone book and tell someone to pick a letter. I pick a name out of that then.

As for the contest, I think there should be an "open" round. People could write whatever they want, namely their specialty. Some other round possibilities could be a death scene, tearful departure/arrival, perspective (first person, and can be judged on how well we learn about the person), a prompt (where we provide a sentence or so and they write the rest), comedy, or (dun dun dun) romance.

Now before you all go "ew," most people have a hard time writing a romantic scene without making it horribly cheesy and as a result unbelievable. On more than one occasion I've wanted to break my computer over it or throw a book across the room...That's why I refuse to read any of those teen books that are set in the "real" world, more often than not, they're horrible. The point of this could be to test how well they can write a scene that's usually unbelievable and cliche without making it either of those things, or making it so that people are so caught up in it they don't notice.

Edit: Obsidian, are you ever planning on responding to that PM sent ages a go? XD

very useful sites, in my opinion. it gives you an origin of the name, what the name means and its history.

example (name):

Quote:

JOHN
Gender: Masculine
Usage: English, Biblical
Pronounced: JAHN

English form of Iohannes, which was the Latin form of the Greek name ??????? (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name ???????? (Yochanan) meaning "YAHWEH is gracious". This name owes its consistent popularity to two New Testament characters, both highly revered as saints. The first was John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ and a victim of beheading by Herod Antipas. The second was the apostle John, also supposedly the author of the fourth Gospel and Revelation.

The name has been borne by 21 popes and eight Byzantine emperors, as well as kings of England, France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Hungary. It was also borne by the poet John Milton and the philosopher John Locke.

example (surname):

Quote:

Carlisle
Usage: English

Although the origin of the 'ancient and famous city of Carlisle', is lost in the uncertainties of antiquity, historians are agreed that it was a place of importance in the time of the Romans. Its ancient British name is supposed to have been Llugyda-gwal, which meant the "army by the wall"; the Romans called it Luguvallum, and in Bede's life of St. Cuthbert, it is called Luguballa. Whitaker says that Lugu-vall-ium signifies "forts on the water". The Roman name Luguvallum was afterwards abbreviated by the Saxons to Luell, which, combined with the Saxon word Caer "city", became Caer-Luell, whence is derived its present name. Nowadays, the city of Carlisle is located in the country of Cumbria in England.

I'm here to kindly ask something from our marvellous writers; it was suggested by our dear Valentine, and I thought it was a pretty good idea.

Would you guys post here the genres you specialize in, so I can add them to our writers list in the first post? It will be a lot easier for readers to find what they like. If you think you write more than one genre than that's fine too, you can post them all.

Oh, and you obviously don't have to do this if you don't want to, it's just a suggestion.

Thanks a lot!

By the way, I'll update the list with what you guys posted so far when I have enough time, don't worry!

I write quite a lot of fantasy. Sometimes I'm also writing Action/Adventure, A bit of Comedy, A bit of Sci-fi, and maybe mystery. They're the main ones. I do a little bit of everything (at an average, rated teen) but they're the ones I do the most.

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